Page 111 of Pretty Lies

“Or are we just a disaster waiting to happen, Cory?”

“The better question,” he returned, “is are you willing to find out?”

Della leaned in for a kiss. He let her take it as he tossed away the bloodstained washcloth. Her kiss was a good enough answer for him.

He found everything he was looking for in the skim of her lips against his and then the taste of her on his tongue. She tasted of tobacco and her. Heat and temptation and fucking perfection. That’s always how she was to him. He couldn’t stop himself from moving closer when her fingernails danced over his biceps and down his shoulders. Crouching slightly over her in the chair until her back was flush with the curved back, only then did their kiss slow.

She smiled. Her lips curving against his own grinning mouth. All teeth and stained lips and happiness. He wanted her to do that more often. Smile, that was. Too many things had given her every single reason to cry lately but not him. He wouldn’t be something else that hurt her. She would only ever smile with him.

“Do you think … this is all over now?” she asked.

Her words tickled his skin.

The urge to taste hers was strong.

“Almost,” he told her. “But I don’t want you to worry about that shit anyway. What’s left isn’t something you need to handle. I don’t want one more thought in your head about people who only did you wrong. All you need to do now is be happy. Nothing else is important. Let me take care of the rest. Whatever you want, I’ll do it if it means you’re smiling. That’s kind of the deal between you and me now, huh?”

Her glittering gaze teased him. “What, that you’ll do anything for me?”

“Yeah, Della. Exactly that.”

I know,” she said in a breath. “That’s the terrifying part I mentioned earlier. Because the only thing I really want is for you to stay. Right now. Later. I get fucking clingy, and if we’re really doing this fucking thing together then—”

That was enough for Cory. Now she was just overthinking. He kissed her again just to shut her the fuck up. He figured it probably wouldn’t be the last time, but there wasn’t any need for nonsense tonight. They were fine. Everything else would work itself out. The last thing they needed to pick apart was what they had together.

It worked.

“Don’t fix shit that isn’t broke,” Cory said, kissing her quickly between each word. “You want me to stay?”

Della nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then, I’m staying.”

Cory’s gaze dropped between them, and he thoroughly enjoyed the view. The robe had fallen open around her curves, and she wore nothing under it. “And unless you tell me you want something else other than me, I’ll be very good to you while I’m here.”

The way her breath caught in her chest had him leaning in for another taste of her lips. She gave it to him, willing and sweet and already greedy enough to let him do whatever he wanted to her. That’s how fast things could switch between the two of them. A word or a look. The promise of something sinful sent both of them chasing it together.

That better never change.

“You’re all I want,” she told him.

“You sure?”

“Absolutely.”

Then, he’d give her exactly that.

“I want you to come before the tub fills,” Cory explained when he grabbed Della’s wrists and pinned them over her head to the wall with one hand. His other? Dipping between her already wide thighs. She had no shame with him, and he fucking loved it. He got her hot enough that she didn’t care if he knew how bad she wanted it. That got him off every single damn time. “On my fingers, and then give me a taste, yeah?”

Her tongue peeked out to wet the seam of her lips when his fingertips ghosted over the soft heat of her sex. If she wasn’t entirely bare, then she was neatly trimmed like right then. Her hips jerked forward when he found her clit and flicked his fingers against it.

“Is that what you want?” he asked.

His fingers moved lower to find where she was wet and silky. The longer he waited, teasing with soft strokes and the occasional flick the more she trembled and the harder she tried to stay still. Under his control, he thought she was always at her best.

Almost in control.

But not quite.